ICC Note: When ISIS first began its slighting advance through the Middle East the world was shocked and disgusted. Now, two years later, the world seems to have forgotten that the innocent are still suffering under the iron, bloody grip of the Islamic State. Iraqi Christians have expressed their despair at having been forgotten by the world. Bishop Mar Shlemon Warduni is no advocating on behalf of his people begging the world to remember and pray.

07/14/2016 Iraq (Christian Today):  Christians persecuted by Islamic State in the Middle East believe the world has forgotten them, but remain convinced that God is near, an Iraqi bishop has said.

Speaking to East County Magazine, Bishop Mar Shlemon Warduni, who has been working in San Diego but before that served in Baghdad, said: “our people are suffering too much”.

“Nobody loves them, nobody takes care of them,” he added. “The children, the young people, they have no future. They finish studying and they have no job. Always, we cry, all over the world, for those children.”

Hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled the Middle East since the rise of ISIS, though some have remained behind. Both groups “sometimes… feel that nobody cares for us,” the bishop said.

“Sometimes when we are in difficulties, we feel desperation, [but] we are all sons and daughters of hope… Our Lord tells us…’I am with you until the end of the war’.”

He urged world leaders to do more to help those who have fled war and persecution in Iraq and Syria. “This is a very difficult issue,” he said. “Presidents, ministries, they talk, but in reality what have the done? Those whom made it out of Iraq, they don’t even give them exit visas; some have no food.

“For this I cry, I supplicate, I pray for everyone to do something. Where are human rights?”

Bishop Warduni will soon return to Iraq and, along with a number of church leaders in the region, has underlined the importance of Christianity being preserved in the Middle East.

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